Instant lottery tickets issued by lottery service providers and/or lottery ticket manufacturers permit various levels of winning according to a pre-defined prize structure. The prize structure usually includes high-tier winning tickets (e.g., redemption value of $600 and up), mid-tier winning tickets (e.g., redemption value of between $26 and $599 inclusive), low-tier winning tickets (e.g., redemption value of $25 and below) and losing tickets with no redemption (i.e., zero) value. Depending upon the structure, fewer or additional tiers may also exist. The winning tickets are randomly dispersed throughout a pool of tickets, with each pool of tickets being sub-dividable into books that are distributed to lottery ticket retailers. As an example, one pool of lottery tickets may include 300,000 tickets comprising 3,000 books having 100 tickets each.
The physical tickets themselves typically comprise a game card with a game play area on one face of the card, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, for example. As shown therein, the game play area 15 is typically printed on the game card and provided with one or more scratch-off locations 20, 22 that are covered by a coating such as latex or acrylic resin. Game elements that help determine the outcome of the game appear underneath the coatings. For example, game elements can include winning numbers 28 that are to be matched by player numbers 30 to win an associated prize 32.
For accounting, inventory, tracking and security purposes, the ticket can also be provided with a book number identifier 34, a ticket number 36 and a validation code element or validation number 39 while validation number 39 is shown as a numeric character, it will be appreciated that alpha-numeric characters or other types of codes can be used as the validation number. The book number and ticket number can be shown together and referred to as the “book-ticket” number in one embodiment of the present invention. These elements can appear on the front or back of the ticket depending upon the implementation. In some cases, a coded ticket identification symbol can be applied to the card instead of the book number and ticket number for security purposes. Further, a scannable barcode can be provided on the ticket (usually on the back) to represent the ticket identifying information and/or validation number. In past ticket printing methods, a scratch off coating (e.g., 38) would typically cover the validation code, and the card would typically not be honored if any part of the coating above the validation number 39 was detectably altered or removed prior to redemption. Labels such as “VOID IF REMOVED” were also commonly placed on these portions of the card to appropriately warn the player as shown in FIG. 2. While present day ticket printing methods typically place the validation number (aka “VIRN”) under the scratch-off coating in the game play area, such that it is revealed when the user scratches off the game play coverings, it will be appreciated that the present invention encompasses either form of presenting the validation number on the ticket.
Instructions 44 for playing the game can also appear on the face of the card, along with, for example, the game name, game number, purchase price of the ticket 33, number and amount of highest winning prizes available for the game (i.e., call out 17), total amount available to be won, prize claim process, and/or security and verification requirements.
Since the cash value of the ticket is determined at the time of printing, the tickets must be designed and manufactured with appropriate security precautions to avoid ticket fraud. As a result, instant ticket games are typically designed with several security features to prevent tickets from being tampered with, forged or counterfeited. The security features employed in ticket design usually pertain to the validation number printed on the ticket and the coating applied to the play areas 15 of the ticket. It is understood that a key to controlling game security is to generate and use validation numbers that reveal no information about the winning status or amount of the ticket.
The ticket manufacturing process can employ different levels of security. In what has been called “single pass security,” there is a defined relationship between the ticket identification information (e.g., book number and/or ticket number) and the redeemable value of each ticket, wherein the relationship is stored in a computer file. One who knows the validation number or other ticket identification information can then determine the ticket's value if he or she has access to the computer file. As a basic example, in considering a table of values, one with access to the computer file can simply look up the validation number (or ticket number from the identification information) and see what ticket value is associated with the ticket having that validation number. As an alternative, one can run a computer program that opens the computer file and performs an algorithm to determine the value associated with a ticket having a given validation number or given ticket identification information.
In a more sophisticated form of security, often called “dual security,” the relationship between the ticket value and ticket identification information is eliminated. Using this approach, one cannot ascertain a ticket's value by merely using the ticket identification information. Instead, the book number generated by the game generation program is converted to a different number, and the different number is then imaged and/or printed onto the ticket. In this way, one could not then use the book number and the file containing game data (i.e., the ticket generation or “gen” file) to ascertain the ticket's value. Nevertheless, the validation number could still be used to determine the ticket's value as in the single pass security example above.
Efforts to improve upon dual security are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,374,484 to Bennett, III. The background information describing single pass and dual security is incorporated by reference herein. As described therein, book numbers (i.e., pack numbers) are shuffled in each pool of tickets before the tickets are printed according to a shuffling algorithm, where the shuffle seeds are maintained in an encrypted file or files. One of the stated advantages of this “keyed dual security” approach is that it severs the relationship of the ticket identification information with the ticket value, such that would-be illicit activities can be thwarted.
A primary disadvantage of such keyed dual security efforts is that there still remains a relationship between the book number and the existence of high-tier, mid-tier and low-tier winning tickets. Thus, for example, suppose that 3,000 books of lottery tickets, with 100 tickets per book, are printed and ticket book number one contains a high-tier winning ticket. This ticket book number can be shuffled such that a different ticket book number, e.g., #2168, is actually printed on the ticket, and is now different from the book number stored on the computer file for this book. Even though the book number has been shuffled, an unscrupulous lottery employee or a knowledgeable player with access to the original generation file can use a validation number (e.g., by scratching off the latex coating) or book number on the ticket to determine which book that ticket is associated with, and then subsequently determine whether that book of tickets has a high-tier prize associated with it.
If so, then the player may subsequently purchase the remaining book of tickets in an effort to obtain the ticket with the high-tier prize. Since books are sold in units to retailers, the player will likely need to simply purchase the remaining tickets from the book at the same retailer location. Even if the book number has changed, that is irrelevant to the player, because the player knows that there is a high-tier winner in the book that he has located by chance.